Review: This Book is Overdue! by Marilyn Johnson

Summary: Those who predicted the death of libraries forgot to consider that, in the automated maze of contemporary life, none of us—expert and hopelessly baffled alike—can get along without human help. And not just any help: we need librarians, the only ones who can save us from being buried by the digital age. This Book Is Overdue! is a romp through the ranks of information professionals—from the blunt and obscenely funny bloggers to the quiet, law-abiding librarians gagged by the FBI. These are the pragmatic idealists who fuse the tools of the digital age with their love for the written word and the enduring values of free speech, open access, and scout-badge-quality assistance to anyone in need.

My Thoughts: This is a very interesting book that discusses people most of us tend to overlook: librarians. There is so much more to what they do than what we can see when we visit our local library or when our kids visit the school library. I had no idea the scope of what librarians do. This book doesn’t go into great details on what exactly librarians do, but there’s enough mention of researching, cataloging, helping others, etc. that you can get a pretty good picture. Plus, that’s not really the point of this book.

We meet some of the more notable members of this vocation, or at least more publicly visible. From bloggers to political activists, there are women – and men – here from just about any walk of life. Descriptions of book cart drills show that, yeah, librarians are geeks, but they still like to have fun. What I found most amazing was the story about the library officials who defied the FBI. I also found the chapter on Second Life and what librarians are doing in virtual worlds quite interesting. I had no idea anything like that even existed!

Overall, this book was an enjoyable read with many intriguing stories of real people. Many of them are real everyday people who happened to get noticed. If you love books and/or your local library, this book is for you. When you’re done, make sure to thank your librarian for the amazing work they do!

My Rating: 4 stars

Source: Received as part of a blog tour promotion on TLC Book Tours.

Read It: You can get your own copy of This Book is Overdue! HERE. (This is an Amazon link, and purchase through this link will result in my receiving a small commission. Your support is appreciated!)

About the Author: Marilyn Johnson is the author of two books: This Book Is Overdue! about librarians and archivists in the digital age and The Dead Beat, about the art of obituaries and obituary writers. She is a former editor and staff writer for Life and other magazines, and lives with her family in New York.

Find out more about Marilyn at her website, and follow her on Twitter.

Tour Info: For the main page for this blog tour, including more reviews of this book on other blogs, visit TLC’s post.

Challenges: Counts for 100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge 2011.

FTC Disclosure: All items reviewed were either obtained by me for my own enjoyment or sent (from the author, publisher, publicist, via tour sites, etc.) in exchange for an honest review. I receive no monetary compensation for my posts. All opinions expressed are my own.

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